If you’ve had to sit for a bar exam anywhere in the United States, you’ll remember the experience being stressful at best, or more likely, hellish. With high stakes, ticking time, tight margins of error, and the difficulty of retakes, the bar is widely considered one of the most challenging test experiences in the country.
Now, Arizona is the latest in making major changes to its state bar exam. Let’s take a look at the contentious history of the exam before we dive into reasons why states like Arizona are changing their versions to make it easier for people to practice law.
A Brief History of the Bar
For a long time, the Powers That Be (aka the National Conference of Bar Examiners) struggled to respond to the perennial criticism around the format of the exam. Until the Covid pandemic hit, the test had been more or less unchanged since the implementation of the Uniform Bar Exam (UBE) in 2011, though civil procedure was added as a sixth practice area in 2015.
Covid made NCBE reconsider their priorities and wonder if sticking to old-fashioned principles was really in attorneys’ best interests. In response to the pandemic, a few states temporarily adopted diploma privilege, allowing law school graduates to practice without taking the bar exam, but this was generally a temporary measure.
Various voices in the legal industry continued to push for a more meaningful reform, from professors who wanted to make sure their curriculum lined up with what was on the test, to law firm partners who were concerned about whether the exam truly tested the necessary skills of their new hires.
After a considerable time reflecting, the NCBE finally announced the “NextGen” bar exam, which will launch two years from now. The new test is meant to reflect concerns over adequately assessing practical lawyering skills, be better integrated with technology, creating a more consistent and uniform test, and being more accessible and inclusive of diversity, among other changes in response to criticisms.
Western States Shake Things Up
Perhaps because it had been such a long time coming, or perhaps because state bars lost their patience waiting another two years for NexGen’s roll-out, but some states have taken measures into their own hands. There seems to be a particular trend on the West Coast.
The Pacific Northwest got fed up with the entire concept of a bar exam. Earlier this year, Oregon became the first state to do away with the bar exam and create an alternate pipeline for law grads to practice, joined soon after by Washington state. A handful of other states, stretching throughout the western half of the country, are currently considering similar alternatives to the bar.
Now, for each of their own reasons, the sunny states of Arizona and California are making their own major changes to how they test their aspiring lawyers. Arizona cites its wide justice gap as the primary motivation, while California points to budget issues in its decision. You can read about California’s big splash in bar administration in our related blog.
As for Arizona, their change is less drastic than their western neighbor. But given that the Grand Canyon state is one of the 36 states that uses the UBE, it’s changes are a major departure from its fellow states.
Arizona's High Bar
The UBE is scored based on a combination of three components: the Multistate Bar Examination (which is multiple choice and makes up 50% of a test-taker’s score), the Multistate Essay Examination (six essay questions that collectively compose 30% of the score), and the Multistate Performance Test (two practice scenarios that together make up 20% of the score).
There’s some weird math on how those raw scores are converted to a final test score, and the process can vary depending on the jurisdiction, so we won’t get into that here. All you need to know is that the UBE is scored on a 400-point scale. Each jurisdiction (state) that adopts the UBE determines its own passing score. The minimum passing scores, also known as “cut scores,” typically range from 260 to 280.
Arizona had one of the highest cut score for the bar: 270. Now, their state supreme court just issued an order that would make it easier to meet that minimum.
Arizona Lawyer Apprentice Program
The court ruled that starting this September, candidates who have scored as low as 10 points below the state’s minimum score have an alternative path to getting their bar license rather than retaking the bar.
For those test-takers, the state is starting what it calls the Arizona Lawyer Apprentice Program (ALAP), and ordering courts to give ALAP licenses to qualified candidates (those that score a 260 or above). This would allow those candidates to practice law in paid positions under the supervision of a licensed attorney in either the government sector, a nonprofit, or a rural area.
The goal of this move is allegedly to address Arizona’s issues with access to justice by increasing the number of lawyers serving the public in rural areas and in public law firms in the state. The court noted that Arizona ranks second-to-last in lawyers per capita, and has a number of “legal deserts” in smaller or rural towns. Government positions, such as prosecutors, public defenders, and legal aid lawyers, struggle with hiring and retention. This creates a big justice gap for Arizona residents.
Effects to Come
According to a representative from the state’s supreme court, somewhere between 40 and 80 people get a score in the 260-269 range per session, with two sessions per year. So while it won’t affect that many people, it could certainly help out a lot with the dearth of public interest attorneys in the state.
The move has opened up a broader conversation about minimum bar scores, and many think that Arizona should just adopt a new cut score of 260 for everyone with no apprenticeship strings attached.
Related Resources:
- Prepping for the Bar Exam (FindLaw's Law Students)
- How the NextGen Bar Exam Will Impact Law School Students (FindLaw's Practice of Law)
